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Gun Owners in the news potential ripple effect at the Capital

kenny

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http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/article/SHOT28_20090127-214907/190554/

By Bill Mckelway

Published: January 28, 2009
Henrico County authorities revealed yesterday that the only gun taken from a Watts Lane home where a 2-year-old boy supposedly shot himself Sunday was a .22-caliber rifle.
Henrico police and Commonwealth's Attorney Wade Kizer declined to add further details about items recovered from 1904 Watts Lane on Sunday night or about how Kristofer Jefferson suffered a fatal bullet wound there.
Kristofer was one of eight children age 14 or younger living at the small home with their mother and grandmother. At least two other adult males were in the home at the time of the shooting, sometime before 5 p.m.
The grandmother, Denise M. Jefferson, 57, is being held without bond on a felony child-neglect charge and a misdemeanor charge of keeping a loaded weapon within reach of a child.
Adults in the home on Sunday, including Denise Jefferson, told police the children found a gun in the backyard and that sometime later one of the children reported that Kristofer had shot himself.
Denise Jefferson declined to call police, she told investigators, because "the police would not help." Some members of the family have a history of encounters with law-enforcement officers.
Kristofer died about six hours after the shooting at VCU Medical Center, where he had been taken by a male occupant of the home, according to a search-warrant affidavit.
Kizer declined yesterday to comment directly about the likelihood of a 2-year-old child being able to shoot himself with a rifle, saying only that the rifle was the only weapon found inside the home.
Contents of a search warrant made public yesterday also show that police confiscated a pit bull, three boxes of .22-caliber cartridges, a single .22-caliber casing, a bullet, a jacket with a red stain, and a plastic bag of 7.62-caliber cartridges.
 

richarcm

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Regardless of how it happened it's bad press but it seems weird to mee that a 2 year old was able to pick up a rifle, hold it, get in front of the barrel and somehow get to the trigger and pull it. For a 2 year old that sounds like quite an accomplishment....

And of course they have to throw the "pit bull" in there too...if a house has guns AND pit bulls it HAS to be child neglect.
 

Glock27Bill

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Denise Jefferson declined to call police, she told investigators, because "the police would not help." Some members of the family have a history of encounters with law-enforcement officers.

Now HERE'S your child abuse.



Don't call 911 when your grandchild is shot, just have someone drive him to the hospitalcause that will keep the cops out of it.



I was going to ask what kind of neighborhood this was in, but read where mom, grandmom and eight kids all lived in the same small home.
 

Riana

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richarcm wrote:
Regardless of how it happened it's bad press but it seems weird to me that a 2 year old was able to pick up a rifle, hold it, get in front of the barrel and somehow get to the trigger and pull it. For a 2 year old that sounds like quite an accomplishment....
Heck, that's an accomplishment for a small adult, too. I'm pretty sure I can't reach the trigger of my 22 rifle with the muzzle pointed at myself (unless I use my feet, of course).

And why was there 7.62 ammo present? I expect there was at least one other gun there before that search warrant was executed. It wouldn't surprise me, if they were so paranoid of the cops as to not call when it happened. They obviously needed the time to hide that other gun.
 

kenny

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The house is on a street directly across from The Showplace. earlier reports said the woman's late husband was a Gunsmith and that she was caring for her eight grandchildren. As the story points out, why in the world would she have an unsecured firearm on the property?
 

T Dubya

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I saw the house on the news. It was trashed. There was a child's wagon filled with beer cans. It looked like there was an intertube or something on the roof. Trash was everywhere and the porch was sagging. A tiny house with no grass.
 

Armed

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richarcm wrote:
Regardless of how it happened it's bad press but it seems weird to mee that a 2 year old was able to pick up a rifle, hold it, get in front of the barrel and somehow get to the trigger and pull it. For a 2 year old that sounds like quite an accomplishment....

I agree. I think there's more to the story here, and you notice the staff writer even uses the words, "supposedly shot himself". Kinda suggests to me, he's not buying the story either.

I would not be surprised if we find out later that one of the other kids shot that child.
 

Grapeshot

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Armed wrote:
richarcm wrote:
Regardless of how it happened it's bad press but it seems weird to mee that a 2 year old was able to pick up a rifle, hold it, get in front of the barrel and somehow get to the trigger and pull it. For a 2 year old that sounds like quite an accomplishment...
I agree. I think there's more to the story here, and you notice the staff writer even uses the words, "supposedly shot himself". Kinda suggests to me, he's not buying the story either.

I would not be surprised if we find out later that one of the other kids shot that child.
+1 In any event it is not good news.

Yata hey
 

usaf0906

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It has been said that you cant legislate away crime. The same goes for freak accidents, no matter how tragic, you cant legislate them away.

there were a good number of laws already broken as the story indicates, no need for more laws the criminals wont follow.
 

mobeewan

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richarcm wrote:
Regardless of how it happened it's bad press but it seems weird to mee that a 2 year old was able to pick up a rifle, hold it, get in front of the barrel and somehow get to the trigger and pull it. For a 2 year old that sounds like quite an accomplishment....

And of course they have to throw the "pit bull" in there too...if a house has guns AND pit bulls it HAS to be child neglect.
Maybe they are conducting a secondary investigation that the pitbull may have shot the kid.
 
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